Weighing The Price Of Abolishing Parole

Saving Money Vs. Saving Society

March 29, 1994|By BARRY FLYNN Daily Press

WILLIAMSBURG — Private contractors might supervise many non-violent criminals who would never see the inside of a prison so that the prison terms of violent convicts could be extended, a high-ranking member of Gov. George Allen's administration said Monday.

The governor's parole and sentencing commission is considering a range of cheaper alternatives to the approximately $18,000 a year it now costs to hold a prisoner in a traditional jail cell, said Jerry W. Kilgore, Allen's secretary of public safety.

These alternatives could include "community-based punishment" such as electronic monitoring, daily reporting and halfway houses, Kilgore said.

"We've got to look at privatizing many of these services" if the state tries them, he added. This is necessary "so that we haven't created an entire bureaucracy that we can't get rid of," he said.

Kilgore was part of a panel discussion on abolishing parole held at the College of William and Mary Monday night. Allen plans to call a special session of the General Assembly in September to take up his plan to end parole for violent criminals.

Abolishing parole would effectively extend many prisoners' sentences far beyond what they now serve and thus sharply increase costs of the state prison system.

While acknowledging an end to parole would drive up the costs of the state's prison system, Kilgore added: "We actually won't have to come up with the money until 2004, 2010." That's because the effects would not be felt until new prisoners become eligible for parole years from now.

However, neither Kilgore nor William P. Barr, a former U.S. attorney general now serving as chairman of Allen's parole commission, could estimate how much might be saved by using community-based punishments for less dangerous criminals.

Barr said out of 7,500 new admissions to the prison system, 1,700, or about 22 percent, are for larceny and fraud - non-violent crimes. However, he added that those non-violent criminals typically pass through the system's "revolving door" faster than others and so end up representing even a smaller percentage of the prison population.

He also argued that longer sentences reduce crime and save society far more than it costs to keep those prisoners locked up.

"It saves money" to keep prisoners in jail longer, he said. "But even if it doesn't save money, it's a cost we have to meet."

Panelists for the discussion were Gene M. Johnson, state deputy director of corrections; Margaret P. Spencer, an associate professor at W&M's Marshall Wythe School of Law; John F. McGarvey, a lawyer who represents prisoners; William P. Barr, a former U.S. attorney general; and Jerry W. Kilgore, state secretary of public safety.